Charts Amer. women’s lives and experiences from the pre-colonial era to the present. Individual stories and primary sources -- incl. letters, diaries, and news reports -- animate this history of the domestic, professional, and political efforts of Amer. women. Leading historians illuminate subsequent periods of social and political change -- incl. Jane Kamensky on women’s lives in the colonial period, Karen Smith on the rising tide of political activity by women in the Progressive Era, Sara Deutsch on the transition of 1920s optimism to the harsh realities of the Great Depression, Elaine May on the challenges to a gender-defined social order encouraged by WW2, and Wm Chafe on the women’s movement. and the struggle for political equality since the 1960s. Illus.